Dexter to join other municipalities in supporting Proposal 1

Dexter is in a unique position to provide meaningful backing to the Proposal 1 ballot measure to increase taxes and fees to raise additional funds for road repair statewide.

Local officials made a bold move to increase local taxes by .5 mills a year ago to generate more revenues to address some of the road maintenance needs within the city limits, which has yielded much success and virtually no complaints from the public.

“We were leaders in this,” said Mayor Shawn Keough. “We raised our millage half a mill a year ago to put more money into our roads and we haven’t had anybody … there hasn’t been one negative complaint about us doing that.”

City officials believe that their rapid deployment of those funds coupled with adoption of the PASER road rating system in tandem with an active local road maintenance plan driven by the city manager office has shown the effectiveness of the core concepts underlying Proposal 1 on a smaller local scale for Dexter residents.

Although there will not be an official vote on the support resolution until the next regular council meeting, City Councilman Jim Carson indicated that he would gladly second a motion to put such a resolution to a council vote, during which he would support adoption of that resolution.

Once passed, Dexter will join the City of Ann Arbor in supporting Proposal 1. If a majority of voters support the proposal during the May 5 election, the Michigan sales tax will increase from 6 yo 7 percent. Additional revenues will be derived from increased gas taxes and the phase-out of registration fee discounts.

The measure is expected to raise $1.25 billion a year statewide by 2018. Dexter’s portion of that will amount to nearly $170,000 in addition Act 51 funding three years from passage of the proposal. State revenue sharing would also increase by roughly $36,000 representing an 11 percent increase in that revenue source for Dexter municipal government.